The role of usability on stimulating SME’s on line buying intention: an experiment based on a ficticius web site design

The role of usability on stimulating SME’s on line buying intention: an experiment based on a...
Vila, Natalia; Kuster, Inés
2010-04-09 00:00:00
The focus of the present paper was to identify the key role of usability in SME’s Website design. A conceptual model has been proposed to show how buying intention antecedents are reinforced in highly usable contexts. The model is founded on the relationships between usability, perceived risk, pleasure attitudes and buying intention. To test our model an “ideal” fictitious Website was designed by two graphic designers for a non existent small clothing company directed at the segment of middle class consumers. Manipulating the usability of this Website, another week navigable Website was created to apply our model in a different context. This experiment prepared based on the results previously obtained through a qualitative study developed through seven focus groups. Results show that Internet user develops positive attitudes when navigating through simple, fast and orderly (usable) SME’s Websites. This leads to greater buying intentions. Also, as perceived risk decreases the Internet user’s buying intention increases significantly.
http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.pngQuality & QuantitySpringer Journalshttp://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/the-role-of-usability-on-stimulating-sme-s-on-line-buying-intention-an-CqjDPViZnd

The role of usability on stimulating SME’s on line buying intention: an experiment based on a ficticius web site design

Abstract

The focus of the present paper was to identify the key role of usability in SME’s Website design. A conceptual model has been proposed to show how buying intention antecedents are reinforced in highly usable contexts. The model is founded on the relationships between usability, perceived risk, pleasure attitudes and buying intention. To test our model an “ideal” fictitious Website was designed by two graphic designers for a non existent small clothing company directed at the segment of middle class consumers. Manipulating the usability of this Website, another week navigable Website was created to apply our model in a different context. This experiment prepared based on the results previously obtained through a qualitative study developed through seven focus groups. Results show that Internet user develops positive attitudes when navigating through simple, fast and orderly (usable) SME’s Websites. This leads to greater buying intentions. Also, as perceived risk decreases the Internet user’s buying intention increases significantly.

Journal

Quality & Quantity
– Springer Journals

Published: Apr 9, 2010

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References

Assessing a firm’s Web presence: a heuristic evaluation procedure for the measurement of usability

Agarwal, R.; Venkatesh, V.

Personas of E-Commerce adoption in small businesses in New Zealand

Al-Qirim, N.

An empirical test of the link between web site quality and forward enterprise integration with web consumers